The $_POST variable is used to collect values from a form with method=”post”.
The $_POST Variable
The $_POST variable is an array of variable names and values sent by the HTTP POST method.
The $_POST variable is used to collect values from a form with method=”post”. Information sent from a form with the POST method is invisible to others and has no limits on the amount of information to send.
Example
| <form action=”welcome.php” method=”post”> Enter your name: <input type=”text” name=”name” /> Enter your age: <input type=”text” name=”age” /> <input type=”submit” /> </form> |
When the user clicks the “Submit” button, the URL will not contain any form data, and will look something like this:
| http://www.w3schools.com/welcome.php |
The “welcome.php” file can now use the $_POST variable to catch the form data (notice that the names of the form fields will automatically be the ID keys in the $_POST array):
| Welcome <?php echo $_POST[“name”]; ?>.<br /> You are <?php echo $_POST[“age”]; ?> years old! |
Why use $_POST?
- Variables sent with HTTP POST are not shown in the URL
- Variables have no length limit
However, because the variables are not displayed in the URL, it is not possible to bookmark the page.
The $_REQUEST Variable
The PHP $_REQUEST variable contains the contents of both $_GET, $_POST, and $_COOKIE.
The PHP $_REQUEST variable can be used to get the result from form data sent with both the GET and POST methods.
Example
| Welcome <?php echo $_REQUEST[“name”]; ?>.<br /> You are <?php echo $_REQUEST[“age”]; ?> years old! |